To Stand on the Court Again
by mimi-cee
Summary: The next school year rolls around and Yamaguchi is disappointed that he's not a starting player. When he feels like there isn't much more he could do, the girl in front of him tells him, "I think you can be a starter, and I don't mean that lightly." Then she backs it up with her actions. A volleyball story about Yamaguchi's second year with a heart-warming ending.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I initially published this as a one-shot. It's still mostly the same story but I'm going to break it up and I'm planning on extending some parts of the story.

* * *

Spring had come and gone, but not a lot had changed for Yamaguchi. The third years had graduated and the team had taken in some first years. But with the changes that took place around him, he felt the same. During the last practice game, it became clear that he was the only one in his year that had yet to improve. Sure he had his one weapon, his jump float serve, but lately it felt like a burden instead. His float was the thing that gave him the opportunity to stand on the court with his teammates, but he wanted more. He wanted to be a starting player again. He remembered the games he played in junior high and missed them. He had been able to hit and block for his team and longed for the feeling of playing on the court again for an entire game. But Coach Ukai had defaulted the starting positions to the current third years in addition to last year's starters.

Hinata, Kagayama, Tsukishima, Tanaka, Ennoshita, Kinoshita, and Nishinoya. They were the starting players for the current year. There was no room for him. He wasn't surprised when the coach showed them the starting line up for the practice game. But he had held his breath anyway in hopes of seeing his name there.

It didn't help that during the practices, Coach Ukai had to prioritize coaching the new team. They didn't have Sawamura, Azumane and Sugawara to rely on anymore. Their new team felt lacking and the coach needed to figure out how to get them prepared for the next preliminaries. Yamaguchi understood that their coach had enough to worry about, but he was sad that it left players like him feeling orphaned. Fortunately, the coach understood what it was like to be a bench warmer. He would have liked to have an assistant coach to help with the other players, but it would take some time to find one suitable for their team.

Yamaguchi looked up to see Yachi dragging one of her friends to their practice. She looked a little flustered as Yachi chatted with the coach. Yamaguchi recognized her from his class but couldn't remember her name.

Afterwards, the coach did some defensive training with the team. At the far side of the net, he stood on a box to spike the balls to the team. Tsukishima and Kagayama stood right in front of the coach on the opposite side of the net to block the ball. Kinoshita was off to the front left to get any spikes or tips that landed in his area. Nishinoya stood in the back left to get those strong cross-court spikes. Tanaka stood in the far in the back to get any long balls that would hit the top of the block and Ennoshita covered the straight. Hinata waited on the sidelines until the coach told them to swap the front and back row players.

With the coach instructing these players on their positioning, Yamaguchi, Narita and the first years stood by to watch. Yamaguchi grew frustrated. He didn't want to observe them. He wanted to play. He could even be practising other skills right now. But the coach did a surprising thing afterwards. He asked his female classmate to come stand on the box and to spike in his place. The coach observed her hitting skills and smiled in satisfaction. "That was great, Meikono." said Ukai. "Could you come back tomorrow to help with practice?"

Mei looked over at Yachi with hesitation, but Yachi nodded excitedly back at her. "Sure," Mei replied with a smile.

The coach later explained to the team that they recruited Mei to be a sort of temporary junior assistant coach and that she would be able to help with certain practice drills. The team was fairly excited to learn about the new addition to their team. She smirked and commented on how Yachi never told her how rowdy their team was.

A few days later, the coach had split the team into two groups, the starters and non-starters. Yamaguchi felt his stomach tighten in a knot. The non-starters were going to practice some of the drills in a separate gym. The coach told them that he wanted them to improve because he saw potential in them and wanted Karasuno to be a strong team for years to come. That seemed to inspire the new first years, but Yamaguchi didn't want to wait for his third year to become a starter.

The coach had given instructions to Mei on what drills he wanted the non-starters to work on in the other gym. They started off with practicing their serves, so Yamaguchi practised his jump float serve like usual. Mei came up to him later and asked about it. They got into a conversation about how he had approached Shimada and practised outside of the school. He explained that he had wanted a fighting chance to be on the court, and he had gotten it as their pinch server, but he wanted to be a starter. Mei seemed to understand his sentiment.

Back in class, Yamaguchi realized that Mei actually sat in front of him but never really noticed. It seemed like she didn't realize it either. One day she asked him, "Are you serious about being a starter?"

Yamaguchi nodded. "I want to, but I'm a middle blocker. Tsukishima and Hinata are essential for our team and Narita is there as back-up if anything happens to them." Yamaguchi felt stuck. He didn't know what else to work on other than improving the success rate of his floating serves.

"I think you can be a starter," commented Mei, "and I don't mean that lightly." She started listing out the different approaches he could take. He could try to go for the right wing spiker position. She explained that since most aces are left wing spikers, most blocks will occur on their right side of the court. "Kagayama's blocks are great when he's in the front row because of his height," she continued, "but Ennoshita's blocks are a bit short. Maybe he could be a left wing spiker instead. He seemed more comfortable there." She assumed that Yamaguchi was good at blocking since he was a middle blocker and probably had a lot of practice blocking in junior high. "You're pretty tall too," she commented as she examined his stature. "I wonder if you're the third tallest on the team. No wait, Narita is pretty tall too. Maybe the fourth then?"

The two of them also discussed the possibility of Yamaguchi being a left wing spiker. He could improve on his spiking form which would make his spikes more powerful. "You already have a good and stable jumping form from practising your jump floats," she mentioned. "You can use that as a foundation for your spikes."

While Mei continued giving him further guidance, a warm feeling started to fill up inside of Yamaguchi. The discouragement that he felt had disappeared. Her words had allowed him to see the opportunities in front of him.

"Your receives suck though," she added. "You'll need to improve on that if you want to be a wing spiker. You weren't able to get the dig when the opponents attacked off of your servers. Hmm... the libero could technically swap with a wing spiker, but with your team, middle blockers need it more," she laughed.

"Wait, how did you know my digs were bad during games?" Yamaguchi asked.

"I asked Yachi for the video footage of your games," she replied. "I also asked for information on everyone's position." Yamaguchi was amazed at how serious she was with helping him and the other players. Her position was only temporary as well. "Anyway, for a short term goal, I think you need to prioritize on your receives, at least, if you want to be able to serve as long as possible during games. Your long term goal could be to improve your spikes."

Yamaguchi started to feel a little overwhelmed by the wealth of information that Mei had for him, but he was encouraged. Other than his floats, nobody really saw any potential in him. Even then, he had to believe in himself before anyone else believed in him. But this was the first time someone really thought he could do it and confirmed it with their actions.

"I don't think you'll have a problem with this," said Mei. "You took the time and initiative to work on your float serves. You just need to work on your other skills in the same way. When you do get better, the coach will naturally notice."

Yamaguchi gave Mei a soft smile. "Thanks Mei. I owe you a lot. I really appreciate this."

"You're welcome," replied Mei. She looked back at the diagrams she drew during their discussion. The smile she had on her face disappeared. If Yamaguchi didn't know any better, she actually looked kind of sad. He wanted to ask her about it but he decided not to pry.


	2. Chapter 2

Yamaguchi implemented Mei's suggestions and created a practice plan for himself. During the days they didn't have practice, he decided to practice his receives outside of the school. He asked Tsukishima if he could borrow his volleyball and stood outside to bump the ball to himself. Other days, Tsukishima would practice receiving with him. As he gradually improved, he wondered what else he could do. He remembered another conversation he had with Mei. Since he wanted to improve as fast as possible, Mei told him he should be smart with how he used his time. "There are no shortcuts to becoming a great volleyball player," she said. "Like with any skill in life, you need to practice over and over again. It takes consistent daily discipline over time. But what you can do is to use your time more efficiently."

So during one practice, Yamaguchi chose to turn down spiking practice with the rest of the middle blockers and wing spikers. Instead, he went to the other side of the net to join the liberos. His team was surprised that he didn't want to practice spiking, but he knew the fastest way to improve his digs was to receive spikes repeatedly like the liberos did. The first year libero initially complained that two receivers were enough and told him to go practice his spikes like he was supposed to. But Nishinoya said that he wanted to try some setting so he gave his spot to him. As Yamaguchi received the spikes from his teammates, Mei looked at him with a smile knowing that he had a plan.

Mei later lent her volleyball to him. She told him a trick that some players used to practice their spiking. If he was going to use the team's spiking practice to work on his digs, he could use this to practice spiking alone. She hung her volleyball from a tree and asked him to run up and swing at it. After trying, Yamaguchi felt like he could jump higher so she adjusted the ball. When they got the ball at a comfortable height, he did a few warm up hits before Mei gave him some suggestions. "Try to visualize yourself spiking from different locations of the court as you practice: left, middle, right as well as from the back. Also, think about where the block might be."

"Thanks so much Mei," said Yamaguchi. "It's really encouraging to have someone guide me through this."

"You're welcome," she grinned. She took a melancholic look at the hanging volleyball before she asked, "You don't have your own volleyball, do you?" Yamaguchi shook his head. "You can have mine," she smiled.

Yamaguchi opened his mouth in surprise. "You're giving this to me?" he said, pointing at the volleyball. He suddenly realized that she had made the investment to own a volleyball and must have bought it for a reason. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, I don't need my volleyball anymore," she smiled. But when she thought that Yamaguchi wasn't looking, she let out a sigh.

During the next few weeks, Yamaguchi consistently practiced his receives and spikes outside of practice. But at the summer inter high tournament, he was still only used as a pinch server. He persevered and kept working hard until Ukai let a first year start in a practice match. He hated it. He didn't understand why the coach had looked over him and placed a first year wing spiker in the match.

He continued to practice his receives with Mei. She threw the ball down at him and he bumped the ball. She caught the ball at a height near her waist. "You need to get the ball higher," she said. "The setter won't be able to set well if the ball isn't over his head." Out of frustration, Yamaguchi stopped practising and he didn't reply her.

Mei didn't say anything initially. She knew that all he could do was to keep practising. But when she saw how depressed he was during class as well, she decided to address his frustrations. "I wasn't going to say this out of respect for Coach Ukai, but I think that first year sucks. He has power, but half of his spikes hit the net. His receives are bad and his technique is sloppy. I honestly think that Coach Ukai is just reacting to what happened at the inter high, and is trying different things. If you don't want the coach to feel the need to grasp at straws, then you need to be a more reliable player." She took a breath and sighed, "I know it's hard, but you can do it."

Yamaguchi didn't feel encouraged right away, but when the disappointment gradually wore off, he was thankful for her direct words. He wasn't there yet but one day he would be.

One opportunity did presented itself, but not without some initiative on Yamaguchi's part. He had asked the coach if he could try to be the right wing spiker in the next game because his blocking skills could help against the opponent's straight. The coach agreed and he was placed in the next match.

"Hey, Yamaguchi," said Hinata with a knowing smile, "do you want to try what we practised?"

Yamaguchi recalled another conversation in his classroom. He had told Mei that he had understood that he needed to be a more consistent player, but he had felt like he needed more of an edge. She had suggested to think about his team as a whole and to consider who he would be playing with. Yamaguchi had later drawn out the positions of regular starting players. If he took a wing spiker's spot, he would probably be beside Hinata because the coach usually put Tsukishima between Tanaka and Kagayama. That meant that when he was in the front row, Hinata would be with him the majority of the time. So during their team's spiking practice, he had asked Hinata if he could test out something.

"Sure, let's try it," grinned Yamaguchi. When Nishinoya was able to give a clean pass to Kagayama, Hinata ran to the right side of the net. The middle blocker on the other team was lured to where Hinata was and one blocker marked Tanaka at the other end of the court. Hinata jumped and the two blockers on the other side mirrored him. But a tempo later, Yamaguchi ran up to the middle of the court and freely spiked without any blockers.

It worked and their tactic had paid off. At practice, Hinata and Yamaguchi had run into each other a lot with their first few attempts. They had solved it by having Hinata run at first tempo while having Yamaguchi go at second tempo. Kagayama had to slow down his set by using a taller arch and Yamaguchi had to adjust to doing his running approach diagonally.

Seeing Yamaguichi's overall performance in the game, Coach Ukai decided to make him a starter. He was pleased with how much Yamaguchi grew. "With how much you've improved, I'm confident that our team will get even further now." That compliment meant a lot to Yamaguchi. He was a starting player, not by chance or accident, but by his hard work. He was so happy that he felt like he could cry. His fellow second years, Tsukishima, Hinata, Yachi, and Kagayama, were all happy for him knowing how much he wanted this. He couldn't wait to tell the good news to Mei the next day. He wanted to thank her for all of her help.

He remembered back to the day when Mei had come to their gym early. The net had been up and she had been alone practising her serves. When Yamaguchi had come in, she had gotten embarrassed that he had caught her serving. It had looked like she was trying to do a float serve. Yamaguchi had guided her how to do it. "I can't do a jump serve," she had told him. "Is it possible to do a standing float serve?"

Later, when Yamaguchi had asked her how she knew so much about volleyball, she had said that her mother had been a volleyball player and had taught her since she was young. They had gone to the park together where her mom had trained her on how to receive, volley and spike. Her mom had tried to teach her as much as she could without an actual team. Mei had even joined a private volleyball club for a bit when they could afford to. "I tried out for the girls' volleyball team in first year, but that didn't work out," Mei had said with a painful smile. "Even though I'm fairly tall for a Japanese girl, I can't really jump."

"That must have been pretty discouraging," Yamaguchi had noticed. He had started to see how she had been able to sympathize with him as a benchwarmer.

So the day after he became a starting player, Yamaguichi looked for Mei to tell her what had happened during the practice game, but she was absent during class. At lunch, he asked Yachi if she knew where Mei was. "Oh, she's just at a doctor's appointment," she said. "Her knee started hurting again. She should be back now."

"What?" Yamaguchi exclaimed in shock. "Again? You mean this has happened before?"

"Yeah. That's why she stopped playing volleyball. She was the ace in middle school."


	3. Chapter 3

Yamaguchi ran back to his classroom as he thought of all the clues that he had previously missed.

_"Try to visualize yourself spiking from different locations of the court as your practice."_

_"Yeah, I don't need my volleyball anymore."_

_"I can't do a jump serve. Is it possible to do a standing float serve?"_

_"I tried out for the girls' volleyball team in first year, but that didn't work out."_

_"I can't really jump."_

When Yamaguchi found her, she wondered why he was out of breath. Yamaguchi walked up to her and struggled to find the words to say. He gently held her wrists and asked, "Why don't you play volleyball anymore?"

She looked at him confused. "It's because I can't jump very high," she answered as if it was obvious.

But that wasn't the answer Yamaguchi was looking for. "Why don't you play volleyball anymore?" he asked again with tears starting to fill his eyes.

Mei's eyes started to water as well. "If you ask me like that, how could I not cry too?" She explained that she injured herself over something stupid and couldn't play anymore. She wasn't allowed to jump because of the pain and the pressure that it put on her knee. Because her volleyball career ended when she barely started high school, she would never experience what could have been her peak years. She couldn't handle the pain of not being able to play anymore, so she avoided anything related to volleyball. But then Yachi dragged her into their practice and she learned how Yamaguchi had fought to be on the court with his float serves. When he had told her that he still wanted to be a starter, she genuinely wanted to see him improve. "But then practising with you reminded me of the all times I practised, and then I wanted to play again, and..." She started to cry even more.

Yamaguchi wrapped his arms around her as she continued to sob. He didn't give her light bits of encouragement about what she could do instead. Sure, she could be a coach in the future, but this wasn't the time to mention it. He let her mourn over what she had lost because she only avoided thinking about her injury and never let herself be sad over it. So he told her that it was fine to cry because she had cherished volleyball and all the memories she had playing it.

The next day, Mei couldn't make eye contact with Yamaguchi. When Tsukishima asked why she was acting strange, Yamaguchi just shrugged and thought that she was just embarrassed about crying yesterday. But behind them, he heard Yachi giggling and teasing Mei about something.

"Yamaguchi," she told him one day, "I need to tell you something." She shyly looked down at the floor, wondering how he'd take the news. "I'm going to join the girls' volleyball team as their manager and assistant." She explained to him that she had learned the girls' team wasn't doing so well. The time she had with him had made her realize that she enjoyed teaching volleyball to others. Yamaguchi said he was happy for her but was a little sad that he wouldn't see her during practice.

He had remembered the times when he had fun practising with her. There was once where she fooled around with the hanging volleyball on the tree while he was practising his spikes. She had told him that she was going to adjust the height of the ball because he had looked like he was getting tired so he couldn't jump as high. Instead, she had pulled the ball up every time he tried to spike it and had laughed at him.

On a different day, during defensive practice with the other players, she had told him to block in a way to allow her to spike a straight. He had listened to her the first few times but he had decided to block her spikes for fun to tease her a bit. He was definitely going to miss having her around.

When Mei heard that he was a bit sad about her leaving, she blushed at his comment. She said she needed to tell him one more thing. "I think I like you, Yamaguchi."

"What?" Yamaguchi's jaw dropped. He tried to process what was going on. "What's happening? Pretty girls used to only talk to me about Tsukishima."

"You know I'm not like that," laughed Mei.

"I know, but I'm still shocked!" he stated.

Not knowing what else to say, Mei told him that he didn't have to respond right away or even like her back. "I just want to thank you for everything," she smiled.

Yamaguchi smiled back at her. They've both gone through a lot together and he was thankful that she was by his side. "Likewise."

Even though they saw each other in class every day, Yamaguchi would still come and say hi to her during the girls' practices. "I just want to see you in action," said Yamaguchi and Mei complained in response. "Actually, I just wanted to see the girl I like," he added.

Mei turned red, especially because the rest of the volleyball team heard what he said. "You can't just confess to me so casually like that!"

Yamaguchi just snickered at seeing how embarrassed she was. "I actually have something else for you too." He held the volleyball that she had given him and returned it to her. He told her that he had bought one and that she might need hers back. She still had powerful serves that she could use to help the girls' team improve. She could even try to help them receive float serves too if she practised. She considered what he said and took the ball back from him.

The spring inter high preliminaries came along for both the boys' and girls' teams. Yamaguchi told her what time their matches were so that, if she wanted to, she could call and see how her boyfriend's team was doing.

The girls' coach showed the team the setup for the first game. Mei gasped at seeing her name placed at the back right corner position where the server would be. She looked around at the other girls and realized that they had all expected it. "The girls wanted you to play a match again as thanks for how you've coached them. The other five players can cover the court if the other team is able to receive your serve. So just go and serve like usual and enjoy your moment on the court," the coach grinned at her.

The thought of standing on the court with the girls she worked with these past months made her cry. The players - no, her teammates - wanted to support her to make this possible. They gave her a jersey that they had hidden from her and told her to join them during their warm up before the match started.

When Mei stood on the court, she wanted to serve with no regrets. Remembering Yamaguchi's coaching, she hit a float serve over the net and her teammates erupted in cheer when it was an ace. The other team was confused as to why they were celebrating over the first point while her teammates hugged her. Their opponents were able to receive the next serve, but her other five teammates covered for her and defended her serve. Then she served two more aces before the other team got the point and she was substituted off.

Mei called Yamaguchi after the game to tell him what had happened. As she excitedly told him about her three ace serves, she realized that he had been expecting this phone call. "Hang on," she told him. "You knew!"

"I may have suggested the idea to one of the players," he said on the other line. "Or should I say, one of your teammates?"

Mei teared up as she called him a sneaky idiot to which he clarified that he was her sneaky idiot.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the story. This story was born after I saw a manga spoiler and I wanted know if/when Yamaguchi became a starter. I was also inspired by a real story where a girls' college team let their injured teammate serve their set or match point and the other five players fought to win it.

I still find it amusing how Mei was originally created to listen to Yachi's antics in my other story. Then she grew to be a main character with her own back story in this spin off. I'll probably add cute little scenes of Yamaguchi and Mei here and there in my other story, but it probably won't happen until that story gets caught up to the events in this one.

Let me know if you liked the story and if there are any typos. I've read through this multiple times but I feel like something always slips through. :)


End file.
